Abijah "Bije" Long was one of many who claimed to be the discoverer of the cave that would become Carlsbad Caverns. His story is quite unique in that he was the first person to file a placer mining claim and mine bat guano from the caverns from 1903 to 1905.

Long migrated to this area with his family in 1901 from Goldthwaite, Texas. They came by covered wagon, like many other settlers and pioneers looking for a better life and adventure in the West. Long traveled with his wife, two children, his parents and a cousin.

"It was hard for my mother to leave Goldthwaite and my wife was a bit fearful of the future in a strange land, but Father and I thought our future was brighter if we tried anew somewhere else," wrote Long in his book, "The Big Cave," known today as Carlsbad Caverns.

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Long's family persuaded him before his death in 1934 to write, in his own words, the story of his early life after moving to Carlsbad and just what happened during those early days of the cave's discovery. He was reluctant at first but gave in to his family's persuasion.

Long wrote the manuscript for Part I titled "The Discovery." His eldest son, Joe N. "Jodie" Long, wrote Part II, titled "The First 60,000,000 Years" and Part III of the book, titled "The Big Cave Today."

"My husband was always a very honest, though not always a prosperous man," Long's wife wrote in the forward of his book, published in November of 1956. "He was as good as his word and in return, he expected everyone else to be the same."

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She added that she and the family felt they wanted to verify facts he had written with those men who shared his experiences. It took two years to track down those still alive.

"We wish to give our thanks to the friendly people of Carlsbad who so unselfishly assisted us in verifying my husband's account," wrote Long's wife.

Once in Carlsbad

In 1901, when the Longs arrived, the population of Carlsbad, which was known as Eddy two years prior, was about 1,000. Ranching and mining of some kind were what most folks did at the time. Long knew he would have to do something to support his family, so he decided to try the hotel business.

He writes in the book that he took over the Schlitz Hotel that was on the corner of Canyon and Mermod streets, in close proximity to the railroad station. He realized within a couple months that he didn't know much of anything about managing a hotel and decided to give it up. The name was changed to the Bates Hotel, which later burned to the ground.

Then the saloon business caught his fancy. He thought it to be a profitable business since many ranchers and miners came to town on the weekend and spent most of their wages on liquor. "My wife didn't like the idea at all and told me in no uncertain terms," he wrote, noting he did it anyway, ignoring her pleas.

His saloon days were shortened after he took their small son there to show him off. She protested loudly and in order to keep peace in the family, he gave up the saloon. He did admit in his book that a saloon was certainly not a good environment to raise children.

"Her (his wife's) opinion was always best for the family anyway," he wrote, adding he then needed to think of something else to do to support the family.

Long had by this time acquired some mules and thought they might be of some use. He approached the Joyce Pruitt Company, which was looking for more freighting help. He made a deal with them and became busy.

Feeding his mules was his largest expense, so he decided to graze them at the end of each day around Donahue Springs, later known as Oak Creeks Springs. They not only had plenty to eat; they also had water.

Finding the hole in the earth

Bored while the mules grazed, Long decided to explore the countryside. He met Sam Evans and a Mr. Brown, and together the three of them began exploring in hopes of finding something of value.

"At one spot there appeared to be a hole or cavity in the ground and I called to my buddies," Long wrote. "In that rugged country, a hole in the ground isn't exactly unusual, but this one seemed to lead to quite a large empty space beneath it."

None of them knew what to make of it. Long was more excited and curious to learn more about what was down there. He asked who might go down with him and neither Evans or Brown answered him. He decided he would go himself.

Long went to his wagon and got his lantern, large fishing line and all the rope he had. He then tied the lantern on the end of his rope and lowered it into the hole, which was about 2 feet in diameter. He saw sides and a bottom. His curiosity mounted and he decided to go down. He tied the rope around his waist. He asked Evans again to go with him while Brown stayed on top in case something went wrong.

Once down, Long could see up and talk to Evans. He finally persuaded Evans to come down. Long wrote he thought they were down about 75 to 100 feet. They wandered around for a good while before deciding to come up. Evans became nervous about how they would get out of there and was convinced they were in there for good.

Long came up in two minutes. Evans tried but failed and then refused to even try again. Long had Brown took his horse and wagon to Carlsbad to get more rope to make a ladder for Evans to climb. Long hated telling Evans he had to spend the night down there because Brown wouldn't be back until the next day.

"In spite of Sam's anxiety, he said he was hungry so I got some food from one of the wagons and lowered it down to him on the end of a piece of fishing line," Long wrote, noting Evans still had the lantern with him in the cave.

Neither man slept very well. Long continued to reassure Evans that Brown would be back and they would get him out of there.

Finding the larger opening

Early in the morning, Long saw dark objects in the sky. Investigating, he realized bats were disappearing into the side of the hill. Once he got close enough, he saw a large opening on the side of the hill. That opening is known today as the natural entrance to Carlsbad Caverns.

Long wanted to enter this large opening, but knew it was not safe alone. He also knew he better get back to Evans, who might think he had deserted him.

"I was quite excited about the larger cave I had just discovered and, of course, I wanted to tell Sam all about, but when he said he never wanted to go into a cave again, I figured maybe he was in no mood to listen, let alone share my enthusiasm," wrote Long.

Long added that Evans asked every few minutes if there was any sign of Brown. It wasn't until noon that Long noticed a cloud of dust. When he told Evans, he suddenly came to life with hopes he would get out of that hole.

When Brown got there, he and Long made a ship's ladder and lowered it to Evans, who climbed that rope ladder faster than either of them thought he could. Long then told both men about the larger opening he wanted to investigate.

Evans refused and wanted to be taken immediately back to Carlsbad. Long felt responsible for Evan's ordeal and headed to Carlsbad with him. He kept thinking about the large opening and knew he would return soon.

Recognizing a business venture

Long recruited Andy Fairchild and Jacob Lynn to accompany him back to the large opening. The rope ship ladder he had made to get Evans out of the first hole was used to descend. Long went first and hollered back when he was on the bottom. Fairchild followed and then Lynn with a torch.

The three men were struck speechless by the size of the cave. The walk was difficult, rocky and at times, they had to scale large boulders. The farther they went, a peculiar odor became more noticeable. They stopped often listening for sounds, possibly of a large animal that lived there.

"Finally, the smell became quite pronounced and at the same time, we came upon huge mounds of something which was unlike the rest of the floor of the cave," Long wrote, noting he looked up and saw millions of bats and realized the mounds were their deposits, called guano.

"Later we found that this guano reached almost a quarter of a mile in length and stretched some 75 feet in width. Some of the piles later proved to be over a 100 feet deep," he wrote.

Lynn went up the ladder and retrieved four small cloth sacks for Long, who wanted to have the quality of the guano tested. Once on the surface, Fairchild helped Long build a marker 4 feet high until a claim could be made.

"I am not going to waste any time filing a mining claim," Long told the men.

Guano mining begins

News of the discovery traveled fast and Long didn't waste any time getting two sets of claim papers filled out, one placed in the marker at the cave and the other filed with the county clerk. He then learned the guano was commercially acceptable as fertilizer. During the early 1900s, guano was used for fertilizer in the citrus growing areas of California.

Long filed his claim in March of 1903, and amended it in November 1903. It took Long several weeks to make plans and find men who would be interested in hard work in a cave. A wagon road had to be built before any of the guano could be mined and that wasn't an easy job. Long's brother-in-law, Charles Hannz, was hired to supervise the building of the road.

Long also had to figure out how to get the guano out since where it was located was quite a ways from the cave's entrance. This is where Victor Queen came into the picture. He had mining experience and suggested to Long to sink a shaft over the location of the guano using dynamite.

Queen was assisted by Arthur Sinclair and Johnny Forehand. Other loyal workers for Long's venture were John Queen, Wayne Crowder and John Lockhart.

A platform was then built to raise the guano from the floor of the cave to the shaft entrance more easily. They then attached a pulley and a rope to the top of the shaft and lowered an iron bucket from a head frame. The bucket was shoveled full of guano and the first load came to the surface. This was a slow process and not at all cost effective.

The beginning of the end

Finances were dwindling and Long was forced to seek outside financial assistance.

"As a result, I soon made a contract with the Ramsey Brady Company of Carlsbad, whereby they would assist financially in the backing of the undertaking in return for half interest in the profits," Long wrote.

This partnership gave him the resources to blast another shaft above the guano deposits, devise a more sophisticated system for the guano bucket to reach the surface, and build housing for the miners instead of the tents and wagons they lived in.

The men shared ideas and came up with building a railway track from lumber and a cart or wagon of sorts to run on the track. Matt Ohnemus built a sturdy cart to transport up to 10 sacks of guano to the platform and up to the surface. Forehand ended up being the master at sewing the top of the sacks quickly and taught the other men.

Workers often left because of the odor and subsequent health problems it caused. The cost of transportation after hauling the guano to Carlsbad was extremely expensive and quickly ate up profits.

Long's best customer, the Hawaiian Fertilizer Company of San Francisco, decided dry fertilizer was all they wanted to use. He built drying beds in west Carlsbad to reduce the weight of the guano. However, Long's extraction improvements and guano drying failed to make the operation profitable.

"When these problems were becoming more complex and I couldn't see any good solution, a man by the name of Patterson, who lived in Carlsbad, offered me $500 cash for my equipment and the work I had done at the Big Cave," Long wrote, adding he didn't hesitate accepting the offer.

"It seemed as though the extraction of the guano was not intended to be a paying proposition, for the Big Cave changed hands many times after that," wrote Long.

According to research done by Dr. Emily Brown with Aspen CRM Solutions of Santa Fe, the guano in Carlsbad Caverns was mined by several different parties between 1903 and 1920. Sporadic mining efforts continued through the 1950s.